IFR press release

IERA Award 2010 presented in Munich

Alexander Verl - recipient of the Award

On 8 June during the ISR Gala Dinner the IERA Award was presented to Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Verl, Fraunhofer IPA for his project "Inline Measurement Robots - Robots Get the Precision for Car Body Inspection".

From March 10 to 12, 2010 more than 245 robotics researchers from industry and academia met in Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain, for the first joint EURON/EUROP annual meeting. The motivation for the European Robotics Technology Platform (EUROP) and the European Robotics Research Network (EURON) to organise the shared event was to improve cooperation of industry and academia and enhance technology transfer.

At the end of January 2010 the participants of the IFR Quarterly Statistics on Industrial Robots received the total results the worldwide sales 2009. The robotics industry is faced with a dramatic downturn of robot shipments in 2009 by about 50%. But since the third quarter, robot sales are slowly increasing again.

The IFR Statistical Department presented the results of the IFR Quarterly Statistics on Industrial Robots on Thursday in Frankfurt. In 2009, the number of sold units worldwide slumped dramatically by about 50% compared to 2008, one of the most successful years. But as of the third quarter sales figures have been improving.

I am recently back from Tokyo and digesting the impressions from IREX. More than 100,000 visitors came to the IREX 2009 at the end of November in Tokyo. That shows the keen interest in robotics despite the still weak economic situation. Signs of a slight recovery are becoming apparent.

The results of the IFR Quarterly Statistics on robot shipments for the third quarter 2009 indicate that the decrease of robot shipments has bottomed out worldwide. The shipments of all types slumped by 52% worldwide.

The IFR Secretariat and the IFR Statistical Department hosted a booth at the International Robot Exhibition 2009 (IREX) in Tokyo. This show with the theme "Challenge for the next" which took place on 25-28 November 2009 attracted the attention of more than 100,000.